Irrigation units are used in a variety of situations, including personal yards, commercial properties, golf courses, farms, etc. Anywhere in which a plot of land needs to be irrigated can benefit from the use of an irrigation unit.
A typical irrigation unit will only irrigate a limited area, e.g., several hundred square feet. As a result, areas to be irrigated that are larger than this will require multiple irrigation units, the operation of which should be coordinated. Furthermore, in addition to control signals, each of these units must be provided with both water and power. Thus, when a large area must be irrigated, water pipes and power lines must be run to a large number of individual irrigation units. This can be an expensive undertaking.
Generally, it is unavoidable to have to run water lines to the irrigation units, since the entire purpose of having irrigation units is to distribute water. However, it is possible for power to be locally generated at the irrigation units. Having sufficient power generated at each individual irrigation unit could potentially eliminate the need for running power lines to be irrigation units, thus both simplifying the irrigation system, and making it cheaper to install and maintain.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an irrigation system in which individual irrigation units generated sufficient power at their locations for the running of each irrigation unit.